Aurora and Centaur

Aurora and Centaur: Reality and Description in the Age of Technology

Our era is characterised by enormous technological developments. Only a thorough analysis of current scientific thinking will be able to show which aspects of it will be beneficial for future civilisation. The humanities and natural sciences must engage with each other in order to regain access to the reality of a world that today, under the demands of progress in the ‘positive sciences’, has been reduced to mere linguistic descriptions, largely in the form of algorithms.

Aurora and Centaur endeavours to reconstruct the epistemology of Goethe’s world view, as elaborated by Rudolf Steiner, in order to combine the rigour of the positive sciences with the creativity typical of the arts. In doing so, Steiner paved the way for the development of a new form of science that is capable of grasping different levels of natural being, including life itself, based on the free activity of the experiencing subject.

Contents

• Preface
• Proem (Explanation of the title)
• Thought and Language, Subject and Object
• Quantum Physics and the Measurements of the Invisible
• The Atom and the Rose: the Living Being as an Abstract Multiplicity
• Interlude – The Illusion of Technology
• The Meaning of Knowledge
• Annotation on Goethe’s Theory of Colours
• Morphology and Morphodynamics
• Towards a New Paradigm for the Life Sciences and Medicine
• Epilogue
• Appendices I–VI
• Postscript to the English edition
• Notes
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Index

About the Author

Laura Borghi is a physician and specialist in biochemistry and clinical chemistry. She collaborated with Weleda Italia as a consultant and scientific director.

Daniele Nani is a physician and specialist in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He has published numerous works of both scientific and philosophical content along the lines of epistemology. They are both founding members of Imago Proxima Centauri, a non-profit medical association with the aim of promoting and safeguarding the freedom and autonomy of cultural life, particularly in the fields of health and medicine, following the principles of anthroposophical spiritual science as developed by Rudolf Steiner. They have medical practices in Milan.